Online petition seeks naming Navi Mumbai airport after JRD Tata

MUMBAI: An online petition to name the Navi Mumbai airport after Indian aviation pioneer JRD Tata has gathered steam, with over 15,000 people supporting it by Saturday evening.
“JRD Tata was known as the father of civil aviation..the Navi Mumbai airport be named JRD Tata International Airport,” said the petition, put up under the name ‘Rustom Doctor’ on change.org. The site said the petition was put up three years ago. It appears to have gained traction only in the past two days though. On Saturday it became one of the top signed petitions on the site.
On Friday, TOI had carried a report about airports in countries such as the US, Australia, France and Turkey that are named after their aviation pioneers. By contrast, in India, not a single airport honours any aviation pioneer. The TOI report quoted Piloo Tata, a member of the Tata family, who suggested the greenfield airport at Navi Mumbai be named after JRD Tata. He, for instance, flew the historic 1932 inaugural flight, carrying airmail from Karachi to Mumbai aboard Tata Airlines, India’s first airline, later renamed Air India.